


Find Me a Find

by Terrie



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Cranky Harry Wells, M/M, Matchmaker HR Wells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-09 20:46:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11112537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terrie/pseuds/Terrie
Summary: Cisco’s not sure if he did something terrible in a past life to earn this, or something good.





	Find Me a Find

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PlacesBetween](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlacesBetween/gifts).



> I had a lot of fun writing this (I totally admit I started from the last line), and I hope it brings you as much enjoyment.
> 
> Set near the end of "Attack on Central City"

When HR wandered into the Cortex, he had a forlorn look on his face. It looked like someone had kicked his puppy. Not that he had a puppy. At least, Cisco didn't think he did. Given that it was HR, it was possible that he had gotten it into his head to sneak a puppy into STAR labs.

"What happened?"

HR turned sad eyes to Cisco. "He set my drum sticks on fire."

There was no question who "he" was. Only one of them would respond to HR so violently. But even then, Harry wasn’t prone to acting without provocation. "And what were you doing when this happened?"

"I was just watching him work." Cisco stared at him until he admitted, "I may have also been drumming on my stool. But only a little!"

"It’s like working with five year olds." Cisco rubbed at his temple. He could already feel the headache starting. "HR, you’ve been told to stay out of the workshop. I know, because I'm the one who told you."

"I didn’t touch anything this time, I swear. I just thought that his work is so important to him that watching would help me understand him better."

Definitely a headache. "Not that you're not good at your own thing, but what Harry is working on is a little beyond you."

"Not Harry’s work, Harry. The guy doesn't like sharing his face, which is ridiculous, there's more than enough handsome to go around, but beyond that, it's hard to get a feel for him. I only see him through you."

"Through me?"

"Not you specifically, but you as in everybody. Which, obviously, does include you specifically. How you talk about him, how you react to him. Jesse obviously loves him. She's his daughter, so of course she does, but the rest of you care about him as well. I want to see those parts of him, too."

"I wouldn't say we care about him…" HR frowned, and Cisco added, "I mean, not the way Jesse does."

"Well, of course not. None of you are his kid. It can’t be the same. Doesn’t make it any less real, right? It’s obvious in the way you talk about him that he’s important to you. I just want to understand that better."

And that was HR. Doing crazy-making stuff in a way you couldn’t actually be mad at him for. "If that’s what you want, you’re going about it in the wrong way. Harry is like… He’s like a cat. Just substitute science for sleeping. He likes people, but it has to be on his terms. Let him come to you. Don’t push. And expect at least some of your stuff to get shoved on the floor. You’re more like a dog, rushing in and trying to make friends. And you know what they say about cats and dogs."

HR looked confused. "That they both have four legs, a tail, and shed?"

"Must be an Earth One thing. The point is that Harry has a lot of sharp, pointy bits. If you spend all your time poking him, he will use them. Just give him space, and he might just come to you. Maybe. At the very least, he’ll stop trying to shred you."

"I’ve never had a cat. I had a hamster as a child. His name was Mr. Chuckles. He escaped one day when I was cleaning his cage. Did you have a cat?"

"We did. Her name was Abuela."

"Isn’t that Spanish for grandmother?"

"I didn’t name her. Dante did." Cisco shrugged. "She was tiny and grey, like a little old lady."

"I bet you and Abuela were best friends."

"That cat hated me." He held out on arm. "I still have scars. My own fault, though. I was seven and thought she was boring when she was asleep, so I kept poking her."

"And hence your instructions to not poke the Harry-cat." HR nodded. "Yeah, yeah, like a cat. Oh, or a pineapple. You know, all tough and prickly on the outside, but sweet on the inside."

"Sure, like a pineapple. Just never tell Harry you compared him to a piece of fruit." That would be a whole new headache. "Because he will set more than your drumsticks on fire. Just leave the poor guy alone."

"Try my poor drumsticks. Maybe I should get him laid."

"What?" Cisco’s voice reached a pitch it hadn't encountered since puberty. "Absolutely not."

HR cocked his head one side. "Why not? People are generally happier when they’re having sex."

"Because it's Harry. I, we, like him just the way he is." There were no words for what a bad idea that was. Cisco's shoulders slumped. "Look, he’ll be going back to his Earth in a couple days. All you need to do is leave him alone until then. Can you do that, HR? For me?"

"I can do that. Thanks. This little discussion was very helpful. I understand your relationship with Harry much better now."

"If you say so." Cisco shook his head at HR’s antics and put the conversation from his mind. HR’s thoughtful gaze followed him from the room.

\---

The storage room down near the morgue was where Cisco stored his more dangerous devices. It was almost as secure as the pipeline, and he had learned his lesson after Leonard Snart had gotten his hands on the cold gun. So when HR told him that Harry needed his help there, of all places, Cisco couldn't think of what Harry might be looking for.

Harry had pulled several boxes off the shelves. He had one open the on workbench in the middle of the room and was poking through it, grumbling to himself the whole time. Cisco groaned. "You realize there is a system to all this that you are completely undoing."

"A system implies you can find things. And so far, I’ve found shit." He shoved aside the box he was looking through and grabbed another, slamming it onto the work surface.

"Hey, hey! No need to get violent. Maybe if you told me what you're looking for?" Cisco removed the box from the bench, moving slowly as he did. "It’s my storage room, so I know where everything is. Or, at least, I did."

"I’m looking for the components from the prototype vibe glasses I made you."

"We cannibalized those to combine them with the more advanced features from Reverb’s glasses. There's only about half the components left."

Harry gave Cisco a look of disgust. "Yes, I do actually remember doing that. I don't need the glasses, just the leftover components."

"You are such an asshole sometimes." Cisco rolled his eyes. "What do you want them for, anyway?"

"If Jesse is going to stay here, I'm going to need a way to get back to her in an emergency. My world doesn’t have anyone left who can vibe, and we're about to lose our speedster. But I should be able to use some of the remaining components to create an anchor system between Earth One and Two that will let me move back and forth on my own."

"That… Yeah, that might actually work. But I don't know why you're looking in here. This is where I keep stuff that could be a problem if it got out, not old parts.” He moved some of the boxes back to their place on the shelves. "I’ve got the parts from the glasses up in my main lab."

"That idiot said he thought they were down here."

No question on who the "idiot" was. The two men couldn’t be more poorly suited to sharing a face if it had been done deliberately. And, once again, Cisco got caught in the middle. "That’s what you get for asking HR about _my_ lab. C’mon, I’ll show you where I put them."

He slapped his hand down on the palm reader to unlock the door. Nothing happened. There was no light of the scanner, no beep confirming his palm print and the door stayed closed. Cisco frowned. The scanner’s power light was on. The control panel showed the correct status. He put his hand down again. Still nothing. "Well, shit."

"What's the problem?" The words were spoken right into his ear. With a startled yelp, Cisco spun around and found himself chest to chest with Harry.

"Jesus! Don't do that. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

Harry took a hold of Cisco’s arm by the elbow, keeping him in place. "You’re hardly that fragile. Now, you still haven’t said. What is the problem?"

"The door won't open." He could feel the press of Harry’s hand through his shirt. It was oddly distracting. "There's something wrong with the scanner. It's not registering my hand."

Harry frowned. He pulled Cisco aside by the hand on his elbow and tried the palm scanner himself. Just like with Cisco, it sat inert. "Huh."

"That your expert diagnosis?" Harry still had a hold of his arm, and Cisco found himself staring at the pale fingers that gripped him.

"I assume bypassing your own security is well within your skill set."

"Oh, sure. If I had my tools. Which I don’t. Because we’re in a storage room." With his free arm, Cisco gestured around the room. Looking around and then back at Harry’s hand on his arm, a faint alarm went off at the back of his mind.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything." Cisco looked up to see Harry studying his face.

"You just thought of something." He reached out to grab Cisco’s other arm and turned him so that Cisco was facing Harry. "What was it?"

"Probably nothing. It's just that you said HR told you the parts might be in here. And he’s also the one who told me you were here and needed help." Cisco shook his head. "But that doesn’t make any sense. HR doesn’t have the skills to disable the lock’s scanner."

Harry dropped his hold on Cisco. He looked from Cisco to the palm scanner and back again. He frowned. "Why would HR want to trap us in a storage room?"

"I told you. He couldn't. He can barely use a computer, let alone disable a computerized lock."

"But that doesn’t explain why you think he might want to do so." He stepped further into Cisco's space, and Cisco was suddenly aware that he was trapped between Harry and the door. Nowhere to go.

"I…" His mouth was dry. He couldn't find any words.

"Cisco."

He could feel his pulse in his throat at the rumble of Harry's voice. It wasn’t fair that it only took his name to make him cave. "Because he knows you're leaving soon, and that I don't want you to."

Harry took a step back, his face confused. "I don’t understand."

"What is there to understand?" This time it was Cisco who stepped forward, invading Harry's space. He clenched his hands to stop himself from touching. "I don’t want you to go back. You’ll be alone. Anything could happen to you, and we’d never know."

"So, what, I'm locked away in the storage room, to keep me here?" Harry said. "That doesn’t make any sense."

"Of course it doesn’t. Because I already told you, HR didn't do this."

"No, I mean your explanation of why he might want to makes no sense. If this were just about keeping me here, why lock you in as well?” His eyes narrowed. “What aren’t you telling me?"

"Nothing!" Cisco cringed at how defensive he sounded. "You’ve met HR. He's all grand, dramatic gestures. That’s all this is."

Once again, Harry retreated into confusion. "This is the kind of gesture you find in romance dramas. Are you telling me that idiot thinks we're in love with each other?"

"I don’t know what he thinks. I don't even if we're talking about why HR would hypothetically lock us the storage room any more, or if you think he actually did it. All I know is that he wanted to get you laid, I said no, and since then, he’s been looking at us and now we're stuck in the secure storage room." In frustration, Cisco kicked the door. It didn't do a damned thing except scuff the toe of his sneaker.

"He wanted to get me laid? Why?" asked Harry.

"Because having sex makes people happier."

"I am happy."

Cisco snorted. He poked Harry in the chest with a pointed finger. "Of all the lies you’ve ever told me, that might be the biggest. There's more to being happy than not being miserable."

"And yet you told him no. Why is that?" The faint alarm bells in Cisco’s head got louder at Harry's tone. It was low, quiet and dangerous.

"I just, I didn’t think you’d be interested in his style of spontaneous pickups. If I’d know you’d be angry about it, I would have let him go ahead and do it." Cisco ducked to the side, escaping from between Harry and the door. He went over to the workbench and poked idly at a couple of the items Harry had laid out.

Behind him, Harry said, "I'm not angry. I just don't know why you're lying to me. It's not like you."

Cisco turned to find Harry had moved to trap him against the workbench. He'd just traded one barrier for another. "What am I supposed to do, then?"

"You’re supposed to stop hiding." Harry moved slowly enough to give Cisco time to object or move out of the way. While the thought crossed his mind to do so, Cisco instead found himself moving forward to press his lips to Harry’s.

He felt the kiss all the way down to his toes. He expected Harry to kiss like he did everything. Impatient, demanding, even rude, if it was possible to kiss rudely. It was none of those things. Harry’s hands came up to frame Cisco's face and bury fingers in his hair. Beyond that, he let Cisco take the lead. Cisco kept it light. His mind was a whirl of thoughts, and he pulled away to say, "I thought you said HR was an idiot to think there was anything between us?"

"I said he’s an idiot, because he's an idiot. One has nothing to do with the other." Harry leaned back in, and this time, he took control. His lips were firm against Cisco's. He crowded into Cisco’s space and, after several moments of the edge of the workbench digging into his back, Cisco boosted himself up onto the bench.

Now nearly of a height with Harry, Cisco spread his legs to let Harry step in closer. He held Harry's hips in place with a squeeze of his knees. A swipe of Harry's tongue along his lower lip was all it took to coax Cisco’s mouth open. Cisco had no idea which of them the rumbling groan came from. He wrapped his legs around Harry’s waist, trying to pull him still closer. One arm went around Harry’s waist, the other looped around his neck so Cisco could run his fingers through the tangle of Harry's hair.

Lost in the feel of lips on lips, neither of them heard the door open. But Cisco certainly heard Caitlin’s sudden "Oh my God!" He jerked, shoving Harry away from him and pushing himself off the workbench in the process. He hit the floor with a jarring thud and lay there for a moment, stunned and gasping for breath.

He expected Caitlin to rush to his side. But it was a surprise to find Harry on his other side, carefully clasping his hand to help him sit up right. "Are you alright?"

"I think I just fatally injured my dignity." Cisco put a hand to his head, feeling for any bumps or bruises and grateful when he found none. He asked Caitlin, "What are you even doing here?"

"The door set off an alert in the Cortex when it stopped sending status information to the main system. HR told me you two were down here, so we came to check if you were okay. You, uh, you know the rest."

HR leaned against the open doorway, grinning brightly down at them. At Cisco’s look, he gave a jaunty wave, which Cisco returned with a raise of his hand. "HR told you, huh? Well, it’s a good thing he did, because there’s something wrong with the interior sensor. Obviously, the exterior sensor works, since you got it to open. I’m going to have to get my tools, get it fixed before it causes more problems."

"I should go with you. See about those parts we were talking about." With a pull of his arm, Harry helped Cisco up onto his feet.

Cisco kept a hold of Harry’s hand. "Are you sure you still need them?"

"I may need them now more than ever." Cisco would have sworn Harry’s gaze dipped to his lips when he said that. He licked at his lower lip and, yeah, Harry was definitely watching his mouth.

“I just mean you won’t need them if you just stay here. That’s allowed." He squeezed Harry’s hand for a moment before letting go.

Harry held his gaze for several long moments. His lower lip caught between his teeth. "We'll figure something out."

Harry pushed past HR. Cisco watched him go. When he turned back, Caitlin was looking at him with raised eyebrow. He felt his face go hot. "What?"

"I didn’t say anything." She leaned in and whispered in his ear, "But now I'm saying 'Go get him.'"

HR still leaned in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, drumsticks dangling from one hand. His smile was wide and cheerful. He moved to the side. "I'm not standing in your way."

Cisco looked over HR. So similar and so different from Harry. The same face, upbeat and open in comparison to Harry’s grim lines. And the mind behind it so different as well. He had to ask. "You didn't mess with the door, did you?"

"Well, let's suppose I did." He jerked his thumb down the hall in the direction Harry had gone. "I’d be an idiot to let him know that."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Find Me a Find [podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15797220) by [KD reads (KDHeart)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KDHeart/pseuds/KD%20reads)




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